Colourblind man sees colour for the first time, is emotional (SLKottke)
July 20, 2015 8:22 AM Subscribe
Beautiful video of a man experiencing purple (and green, and pink) for the first time.
His colour vision is enabled by a pair of EnChroma specs, discussed previously on Metafilter.
His colour vision is enabled by a pair of EnChroma specs, discussed previously on Metafilter.
And how. It's a $550 pair of lenses, so it gives me pause, but also a definite curiosity.
Explaining colorblindness is interesting... many folks can't quite grasp the idea that yes I can SEE that tree, I can see its leaves, I can see there is contrast and differences in the color of the leaves -- I just can't tell you what colors those leaves are. I'm making an educated guess, educated by years and years of guessing and remembering which answers were recorded as right vs wrong.
Great vid.
posted by cavalier at 8:39 AM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
Explaining colorblindness is interesting... many folks can't quite grasp the idea that yes I can SEE that tree, I can see its leaves, I can see there is contrast and differences in the color of the leaves -- I just can't tell you what colors those leaves are. I'm making an educated guess, educated by years and years of guessing and remembering which answers were recorded as right vs wrong.
Great vid.
posted by cavalier at 8:39 AM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
Yep, this is right up there with the deaf baby hearing mom's voice for the first time and those beagles' first time on grass. *snerk*
posted by carsonb at 8:40 AM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by carsonb at 8:40 AM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
As someone with red-green colorblindness, it was rather difficult to watch this video through the teariness.
I have full colour vision, and I had the same reaction! It's the sheer joy and overwhelm at something so ordinary.
"Is this purple...?"
posted by penguin pie at 8:42 AM on July 20, 2015 [10 favorites]
I have full colour vision, and I had the same reaction! It's the sheer joy and overwhelm at something so ordinary.
"Is this purple...?"
posted by penguin pie at 8:42 AM on July 20, 2015 [10 favorites]
His reaction reminds me of when my younger brother got his first set of hearing aids--everything seemed SUPER LOUD and he definitely felt overwhelmed for a bit. What a sweet gift!
posted by little mouth at 8:43 AM on July 20, 2015
posted by little mouth at 8:43 AM on July 20, 2015
I watched this several times over the weekend and got teary every time.
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 8:44 AM on July 20, 2015
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 8:44 AM on July 20, 2015
When he picked up the... Lysol wipes? and quietly marveled at it... and then later picked it up again and asked "is this purple?"... that's when tears came. Wow. Thanks for sharing this.
posted by seyirci at 8:51 AM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by seyirci at 8:51 AM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
Well now I need to save up $400 to buy them for my dad.
posted by Elementary Penguin at 9:09 AM on July 20, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by Elementary Penguin at 9:09 AM on July 20, 2015 [3 favorites]
I want to buy a pair for my husband, but all the models are out of stock ALL THE TIME.
posted by elizilla at 9:25 AM on July 20, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by elizilla at 9:25 AM on July 20, 2015 [4 favorites]
Somebody get this guy to the Musée d'Orsay to see some Impressionism.
posted by bonobothegreat at 9:27 AM on July 20, 2015 [7 favorites]
posted by bonobothegreat at 9:27 AM on July 20, 2015 [7 favorites]
Test them first, I have a pair, and am red-green colorblind, but for me and for at least one other color-blind friend, they do nothing.
posted by Blackanvil at 9:45 AM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Blackanvil at 9:45 AM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
My husband has a pair of orange-lens sun glasses that make green POP in a way that is really unusual. We've often wondered if they might accidentally possess a similar property to the enchroma glasses.
A friend of mine is in a ltr with a guy who's color blind. I keep hoping she gets him a pair. Selfishly, so I can see his reaction.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 9:48 AM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
A friend of mine is in a ltr with a guy who's color blind. I keep hoping she gets him a pair. Selfishly, so I can see his reaction.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 9:48 AM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
"Moderate Protan...
...A person with moderate protanomaly can typically perceive about 50 thousand distinct shades of colors, which is just 5% of the 1 million shades seen with normal color vision."
*looks at frame styles available*
I think I'm good with 5%. Maybe I can rent a pair next time I go to the Van Gogh museum, just don't let anyone see me in them.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 10:08 AM on July 20, 2015 [3 favorites]
...A person with moderate protanomaly can typically perceive about 50 thousand distinct shades of colors, which is just 5% of the 1 million shades seen with normal color vision."
*looks at frame styles available*
I think I'm good with 5%. Maybe I can rent a pair next time I go to the Van Gogh museum, just don't let anyone see me in them.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 10:08 AM on July 20, 2015 [3 favorites]
Coo. I missed the first Mefi mention of these. They seem that rare beast, a truly transformative invention that's absolutely rooted in solid science and a new use of technology.
There's a colour vision test on the Enchroma website that would, I think, show if you're likely to benefit (It said I was "unknown/inconclusive", which is probably accurate given my retinal scrambling). Certainly, I would think that the notch filtering they provide could easily be simulated in software, so I'd be surprised if you needed to buy a pair to find out of they were likely to help.
The underlying technology sounds very interesting, Engineering complex optical notch filtering is non-trivial and could have lots of fascinating applications (especially if you could build an active filger that could reconfigure on the fly). Being able to spot subtle variations in colours could mean being able to see small changes in state of lots of things - and if they can build frequency changing into that as well, then bam - imagine seeing the infra-red or the ultra-violet, just through a pair of glasses.
I once looked at the night sky through a hydrogen-alpha filter - they're normally used in telescopes but nobody said I couldn't just look at the whole sky. That was remarkable; a completely different set of constellations.
posted by Devonian at 10:34 AM on July 20, 2015 [2 favorites]
There's a colour vision test on the Enchroma website that would, I think, show if you're likely to benefit (It said I was "unknown/inconclusive", which is probably accurate given my retinal scrambling). Certainly, I would think that the notch filtering they provide could easily be simulated in software, so I'd be surprised if you needed to buy a pair to find out of they were likely to help.
The underlying technology sounds very interesting, Engineering complex optical notch filtering is non-trivial and could have lots of fascinating applications (especially if you could build an active filger that could reconfigure on the fly). Being able to spot subtle variations in colours could mean being able to see small changes in state of lots of things - and if they can build frequency changing into that as well, then bam - imagine seeing the infra-red or the ultra-violet, just through a pair of glasses.
I once looked at the night sky through a hydrogen-alpha filter - they're normally used in telescopes but nobody said I couldn't just look at the whole sky. That was remarkable; a completely different set of constellations.
posted by Devonian at 10:34 AM on July 20, 2015 [2 favorites]
Really an amazing thing to see someone experience something so profound for the first time ever. How did he recognize that the Lysol thing was purple? By referencing its shade with some other color he already knew?
posted by skewed at 10:44 AM on July 20, 2015
posted by skewed at 10:44 AM on July 20, 2015
Blackanvil, they have a 30-day guarantee. Did you send them back?
They say that people with different types of colorblindness get different results with the glasses. If that's true, then passing them around ought to eventually help someone. Or send them back if they don't. It seems like a fairly safe thing to try; at worst I'd be carrying a couple hundred dollars on my credit card until the refund arrives. Even if these guys are scammers, buying with a credit card should make it possible to get a refund. And I've been hearing about them for months now; they aren't fly-by-nights.
I wonder what is wrong with their supply chain, that they still haven't got it spooled up to where they have product in stock to match the demand?
posted by elizilla at 10:47 AM on July 20, 2015
They say that people with different types of colorblindness get different results with the glasses. If that's true, then passing them around ought to eventually help someone. Or send them back if they don't. It seems like a fairly safe thing to try; at worst I'd be carrying a couple hundred dollars on my credit card until the refund arrives. Even if these guys are scammers, buying with a credit card should make it possible to get a refund. And I've been hearing about them for months now; they aren't fly-by-nights.
I wonder what is wrong with their supply chain, that they still haven't got it spooled up to where they have product in stock to match the demand?
posted by elizilla at 10:47 AM on July 20, 2015
This is the cutest video I've seen in awhile. The man's slow transition from "cool glasses" to "wait a minute...." to "OH MY GOD" was so sweet.
posted by sharp pointy objects at 11:09 AM on July 20, 2015
posted by sharp pointy objects at 11:09 AM on July 20, 2015
Being able to spot subtle variations in colours could mean being able to see small changes in state of lots of things - and if they can build frequency changing into that as well, then bam - imagine seeing the infra-red or the ultra-violet, just through a pair of glasses.
Aw yeah. Screw flying cars, the bit of the future that I want to be real is Geordi La Forge's visor.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 11:11 AM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
Aw yeah. Screw flying cars, the bit of the future that I want to be real is Geordi La Forge's visor.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 11:11 AM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
That was fantastic. I was getting teary-eyed from it.
As an aside, one of the first things I thought of while watching him explore and react was "Holy cow, this is exactly how people look and act as the acid starts to kick-in."
posted by Thorzdad at 1:49 PM on July 20, 2015 [5 favorites]
As an aside, one of the first things I thought of while watching him explore and react was "Holy cow, this is exactly how people look and act as the acid starts to kick-in."
posted by Thorzdad at 1:49 PM on July 20, 2015 [5 favorites]
Well, that settles a long-standing philosophical argument.
posted by cleroy at 2:37 PM on July 20, 2015
posted by cleroy at 2:37 PM on July 20, 2015
This same video inspired a hilarious Reddit thread where dozens of folks were shocked to find out that peanut butter isn't green.
posted by Megafly at 9:15 PM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Megafly at 9:15 PM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
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